A New York Times report about New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie’s lavish lifestyle stumped the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday. They wondered what said article would have looked like if it were about the Clintons.

People have talked about Hillary Clinton recently due to her potential 2016 presidential bid; last summer, her erroneous and callous claims of being “dead broke” and “truly not well off” were largely frowned down upon.

Co-host Joe Scarborough expounded on those talking points, remarking that it would be interesting to see an article placing the Clintons under the same scrutiny:

They talked about the one night that Chris Christie was around Bono. Would we like to count the nights that the Clintons have been around Bono, Beyoncé, rockstars, kings and queens? They have lived an extraordinarily lavish life that very few people, not only in America but on the planet. They have lived like kings and queens.

“I’m just curious if the New York Times is going to write a story about Hillary Clinton and the lifestyle that she has had over the past 30 years, along these lines,” he added.

“People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense.” –Dr. Benjamin Carson

We once taught our children to admire Washington and Lincoln because they were honest men, men of integrity. A few years ago, people were surprised to learn that presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy cheated on their wives.

Anyone who went to Sunday school learned about King David cheating on his wife, then committing murder in the attempt to cover it up. Cheating and lying and being dishonest have been around since Adam and Eve took the first bite. We used to feel guilty about it. Fewer and fewer people appear capable of feeling guilt over wrongdoing.

As a society, we have so seared the collective conscience; we’ve turned the corner from being numb to guilt to actually celebrating and promoting the cheating heart. Asked why he sexually exploited an intern in the White House, Bill Clinton famously replied: “Because I could.” Ironically, he was at least being honest about his dishonesty. Even so, he was impeached, and disbarred, for lying to a grand jury. There is a certain callousness and selfishness that accompanies dishonesty. The transformation of Hannah Montana to Miley Cyrus is a suitable metaphor.

It is accurate to say this culture turned from casually accepting dishonesty in high places to actually celebrating it, during the Clinton administration, and that shift was assisted by Hillary Clinton in no small measure. She not only worked hard to cover up her husband’s rank immorality; in so doing, she attacked and destroyed women who blew the whistle–and she went further. She engaged in a number of illegal and unethical activities, as revealed in this documentary.

The fact polls show a majority are ready to vote for Hillary in 2016 proves we celebrate and reward corruption and the cheating heart. Her crass and despicable role in the Benghazi affair should be her undoing, but it remains to be seen if the rule of law even applies anymore.

President Nixon revealed the cold, hard-hearted ruthlessness of full contact politics at a time when there remained a sense of devotion to duty and integrity; and so he paid the price, forced to resign in the face of certain impeachment. Bill and Hillary took that ruthlessness to a whole new level, making it something too many people excused and even admired. Pop culture believes it’s ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ to get away with something.

In our individual lives, as with the life of society, we will receive what we endorse and exalt. And so now, since we endorse and celebrate base behavior driven by rank dishonesty, we reap the downward spiral toward utter chaos, and widespread criminality, as seen in Ferguson and D.C. and the New York state house and elsewhere. As John Adams and the Founders warned, without a public sense of virtue encouraging all to protect the liberty of all, this republic will fail because the only alternative to voluntary cooperation is the bayonet.

Logically speaking then, all those people who celebrate dishonesty and immorality are actually directly responsible for the destruction of liberty and the very successful society formed around the basic building block of individual integrity. When leaders engage in despicable behavior, they sow the very seeds of disaster. And once a society descends to a certain level, when we actually laugh about the evil we promote, it is then perhaps too late. At that point, we are staring at dictatorship, martial law, and the militarization of law enforcement.

This is the Clinton-Obama legacy: gross demoralization driven by moral bankruptcy and the cheating heart. When lies proliferate in the halls of power, and truth-tellers are hounded and jailed, the signs of the times are clear.

Honesty is motivated by love and regard for one’s fellow man. It is the foundation of trust, the framework of civilized society. No love, no honesty, no trust, no society; those links are insoluble if we intend the preservation of civilization. If chaos and anarchy and violence and destruction are the goals, then by all means, stay the course.

Finally, if it is true the Church once acted as the nation’s conscience, and if it is true the national conscience has been beaten unconscious, then isn’t the ultimate responsibility for moral collapse rightly assigned to dereliction of duty in the pews and the pulpit?

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by WesternJournalism.com.

It’s certainly reasonable to wonder why he said it — he felt compelled to speak the truth, he was talking as a surrogate for Hillary as she approaches go-time for a presidential run, or maybe he couldn’t resist taking one of his occasional well-aimed shots at Barack Obama.

For whatever reason, Bill Clinton said something you don’t hear from the current administration about radical Islam and its brutal practices that represent “the world’s greatest double standard.”

The former president took the occasion of his appearance on the comedy show “Late Night with Seth Meyers” to lay out a compelling case that intolerant Islamists demand tolerance from all-too-submissive Western societies.

On Fox News‘ “The Five,” Greg Gutfeld vigorously applauded Clinton’s truth-telling, cheering the former president for “saying publicly what wimps say privately” in a way that made him sound like “a right-wing extremist.”

You can see Bill Clinton’s remarks and Greg Gutfeld’s reactions by clicking on the video above.

Last week, Western Journalism reported on the social media storm that raged with gale-force winds of Twitter curiosity about that viral photo of a smiling Bill Clinton happily clutching the arm of a young woman in red.

The young woman apparently enjoying her proximity to the former president in the viral pic is Andrea Catsimatidis, the 24-year-old daughter of the billionaire grocer and failed NYC mayoral candidate.

“New York’s Catsimatidis family has long been close with Bill and Hillary Clinton,” notes a post at FreeBeacon.com.

However, this eye-opening photo making the rounds on social media has many wondering how close Bill Clinton is to the daughter of John Catsimatidis, considered by many to be the grocery store king of the Big Apple.

Curiously, within hours of her picture with Slick Willy going viral, Andrea filed for divorce from her husband of three years, Christopher Cox — Christopher Nixon Cox, President Richard Nixon’s grandson.

As the New York Post recounts, the smiling couple was photographed just last year touring The Great Wall in commemoration of President Nixon’s groundbreaking 1972 China trip.

And with the news of the pending breakup of the marriage, Twitter once again lights up with comments and questions:

For the record, there is no indication in any official document or statement from Andrea Catsimatidis, Christopher Nixon Cox, or their families that Bill Clinton had anything to do with the pending divorce.

Twenty years ago, when Bill Clinton was trying to distinguish himself as the “cool” candidate for president, he told an MTV audience about his intimate undergarments. You may remember the moment when a teenage girl asked, “Is it boxers or briefs?”

Here was a chance for real, meaningful insight into the lifestyle of America’s first-ever presidential contender to admit to smoking marijuana. Clinton’s answer, “Usually briefs.”

Now, two decades later, We the People are enlightened once again about the intimate fashion/comfort habits of an occupant of the White House. And for many, it may fall into the category of TMI — Too Much Information.

For others, what Michelle Obama revealed this week could qualify as a questionable disclosure for the First Lady of the United States. (It’s certainly hard, if not impossible, to imagine that Laura Bush would say such a thing.)

Speaking at the White House Fashion Education Workshop Wednesday, Michelle Obama may have revealed a little more about her choice of undergarments than most would like to know.

The event was geared toward young people interested in the fashion industry, so the first lady used Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, as an example of how perseverance pays off.

Ms. Obama proceeded to tell the youthful gathering how Sara Blakely never gave up on her dream of producing form-fitting women’s undergarments intended to make the wearer look more slim and shapely. That dream became a very successful reality, said Michelle Obama, when Blakely founded what is now a multi-billion dollar company, Spanx.

Then, the First Lady let all the world know with a joyful 7-word exclamation, “And we all wear them – with pride!”